Saturday, 16 February 2013

In the US, manufacturing production fell 0.4 percent in January, pushing overall industrial production down by 0.1 percent. However, manufacturing production in November and December were revised higher.

And manufacturing may have improved recently. The New York Federal Reserve Bank said its Empire State general business conditions index rose to 10.0 in February from -7.8 in January.

Also improving is consumer confidence. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose to 76.3 in February from 73.8 in January.

Meanwhile, the UK apparently needs an improvement in consumer confidence. Retail sales there fell 0.6 percent in January. The fall was partly attributed to weather.